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Show "Why, what meanest thou?" "Meanest I this: why canst I e'en have my children myself, like some among the yeofolk and the Provincials, without benefit of pairing?" "Well..." "Be there indeed some law 'gainst it?" "Marry, my child, nay. 'Tis done here and there e'en among the Doctors, though in t r u t h . . . t h e folk involved pair at length with some wight or other." "Well then, my mother...." "But...in the case of the Doctor class, those wights must record the name of the father-thou seest?-to keep track of the S k . . ." "Ha!" Janni sat up, crossed her legs, and scooted over to sit beside her mother. "To Ida's Hell with BESPA!" Then she broke into tears. "Ah, my pearl," her mother said, taking her in her arms. "Dispute not so with the worlde." Then she said, chucking the sobbing maiden playfully under the chin, "And didst thou not bethink thyself? In order to have children, thou needs m u s t . . . ." "Oh, Mother, I know, I know what I must needs d o . . - " And she laughed through her tears. "But child " "Assuredly, my dear mother; met I two or three Earthskis that would father the most fair among c h i l d r e n . . . ." "Earthskis! My child!" "But, marry, we be cousins to the Earthskis, my Mother. We be from the same gene pool at one time!" She wiped her eyes with the tail of her 204 |